Entry Word: exemplar
Function: noun
Text: 1 one of a group or collection that shows what the whole is like <the village's Congregational church could serve as an exemplar of the white clapboard church with a steeple that is a fixture in old New England towns> -- see EXAMPLE2 someone of such unequaled perfection as to deserve imitation <few of history's heroes were quite the exemplars that generations of schoolteachers made them out to be> -- see IDEAL 13 the most perfect type or example <the paintings of the French painter Claude Monet are often regarded as exemplars of Impressionism> -- see QUINTESSENCE 1